Chapter Seven
The DEET
Malloy sat down in the shade of the great boulder behind him and took a drink out of his canteen. With his radio unable to reach anyone, he had decided to head south towards the settlement of Nicksta. The monstrous little android had apparently murdered the entire team of soldiers and scientists that he had been traveling with. The door to the unusual vault located beneath the house on Washington avenue remained firmly sealed. No one was going to get in, and if anyone was left alive inside of the vault, they were surely not getting out anytime soon. In either case, Commander Dennis and William Hotchkiss were gone now. Removed from this world by some pre-war relics, machines that were capable of besting a fully decked out platoon of Enclave soldiers.
He had heard rumors about lifelike androids, up in the commonwealth, and he had heard tales of how dangerous they could be. It just seemed to Malloy, that the idea of something so small being able to overpower a full squad of Enclave soldiers was ludicrous. Surely what had done in Dennis and his men were the tall white androids that he had first spotted the night before. They hadn't seemed very threatening, but not every robot did at first. He would have to take all of this into consideration with his report, no matter how unbelievable it all was.
At the very least, no one was going to believe him if and when he were to return to the ever shrinking base back home. He took another swig from his canteen, and then threw an empty cigarette pack on the ground in front of him. He readied himself for the rest of the long walk to civilization and went to stand up, but a quick movement over head stopped him dead in his tracks. He fell backward and covered his mouth, sliding as far under the boulder as he could go. He stared as more and more of the white insectoid monsters darted across the boulder above him and continued on a fast pace to the south.
They had on them all, four terrible sickle like legs, set up like a scorpion's legs might be, with several moving joints in each. They were quiet and fluid as they ran past, their bodies were odd shaped to say the least. The best way he could think of to describe their shape was that of a smooth pyramid, with a bent back top that ended in an aerodynamic curve. A bit like pictures of old world sea creatures, they defied any real geometric description. In fact, the bodies resembled in many ways a squid, Malloy had seen a preserved one once in the Vault that he had grown up in. The under belly of the white things had four smaller folded up legs underneath, with a red glowing light in the center. There were more red glowing lights on the bodies as well, six in all, the smallest at the front facing direction, and the largest at the posterior. Just above those lights, were the most terrifying aspect of the crawling menaces.
Four indepently moving and wiggling metallic tendrils were attached to the mid section of each and every one of the creature's bodies. They whipped around and moved about in the air in front of the advancing things like some sort of long thin worms, the movement was unnatural and creepy to witness. At the top of the body was the strange curved pyramid top, with four giant shining red lights on every direction. The heads swiveled back and forth as the creatures ran forward, towards the settlement of Nicksta. One last white squid like thing hopped over the boulder and then bent down towards Malloy. He screamed out and the thing grabbed him around his waist and shoulders by way of it's metallic tendrils. It pulled him from the boulder with ease, and stood him up on the ground feet first, right in front of it.
"Are you okay? Do you need assistance?" Came a kind enough sounding voice from within the creature. Malloy was frozen in fear, and he was unable to speak. He looked at the creature's body and saw markings near it's underbody. The markings were in english, and they were clearly defined. The markings read 'DEET 76'. The machine waited patiently for a reply and then finally let go of Malloy with it's tendrils. "Catalog entry- mentally disabled. Inability to speak." Said the voice, as the machine backed away from Malloy.
Malloy's reflection bounced back at him through the red glowing lights of the body and the head of the machine. It's outer hull was seamless, and almost looked organic, but Malloy new better. The tendrils of the machine quickly wrapped back around themselves, covering the body of the seven foot tall white android. The android shook and made a terrible series of noises, Malloy backed up, unable to run but also unwilling to stand without taking some kind of defensive stance. The noises stopped, and the machine sent one singular tendril out towards him. It placed a shining bit of rectangular foil in his closest hand, and then with the same tendril, picked up the empty cigarette pack and dropped it back into Malloy's shirt pocket. It made a happy enough sounding beeping set of tones and then promptly turned it's body to continue onwards with the other machines.
Malloy stood in the dust, and watched as the androids quickly disappeared behind some hills and he was alone again. Malloy looked down at the piece of foil in his hand. It had on it an intricate design, and it shined in the sun with all the colors of the spectrum. Shapes had been punched out of the foil, and he held the rectangle up to the sky to inspect it further.
The shapes that had been punched out of the foil formed words. Malloy brought the foil back down and read the message that had been left to him. The large friendly words read out, 'Don't be a litter bug!~ Have a nice day.' Malloy blinked and read the foil over and over again, he was unable to accept that what had just happened was reality. The ten menacing androids ran onward, and he decided to follow after them. Scientific curiosity had won over his fear, and he went racing in the direction they had gone. He waved the foil above his head and shouted out.
"Wait! Hold on!" He yelled as he went running.
Victoria placed some discarded bits of clothing on Randall, and carefully picked him up into her arms. He gasped out as she touched his burnt and shiny skin on his back and his shoulders. The bottoms of his feet were cooked through too, from his shins up to his belly button, where the band of his burnt boxer shorts had seemingly partially melted to his skin in a few places. Victoria surveyed the damage that had been dealt to him, and she had decided that he would need immediate medical intervention to survive the next 24 hours. She took him over to a junked out corvega nearby and gently placed him in the back seat of the car. Randall winced and huffed out as the leather interior hit his back.
"You should just try to rest in here, I'll be back with some help soon." Said Victoria, as she laid him down. Randall stared at the girl in front of him, his chest heaving with labored breaths. Outside, in the distance, they both heard the raiders howl out and start cheering again. Randall turned his focus to Victoria's hands and he grabbed out to one of them. "Just rest!" Demanded Victoria.
"Thank you." He choked out, as Victoria pulled her hand back from his grasp. Her palm had been seared through, it had bubbled and separated, and inside her hand had been a flash of silver and white colors. Randall shook his head and pushed himself away from her on his elbows. "Goddamn, but you're strong." He said, pointing to her hands. Victoria looked at her palms and then back to Randall. She put her palms in her lap and backed away from Randall on the seat.
"I can explain that." Began Victoria. Randall continued to point at her palms.
"I'm not stupid. I've seen a guy with a robot arm before!" He exclaimed out, as a shot of pain ripped through his legs. He huffed out and patted his thighs until the pain stopped, and then looked back to the girl's lap. "His was big. Looked like it weighed a ton, and it didn't even do much but open it's hand at that. He said that they can do stuff like that out towards New Vegas. Is that where you're really from? Is it just your arms and legs?" He asked, as he weakly lifted his head up to see her. Victoria frowned a little. She held her palms up for him to see, the melted and indented polymers had given way to the metals underneath that made up her endoskeleton. Randall started heaving again, his heart beat very fast in his chest.
"It's more than that." She said to him. She dropped her hands back down. "I really do come from Cedar Rapids." Victoria added. Randall flinched as another tremor of pain entered his back.
"How much more?" He finally asked. Victoria climbed over on top of Randall, making sure not to touch his burnt areas. She took one of his hands into her own and then brought his palm to her chest. The lack of a heartbeat made Randall recoil a little bit, and he stared up to her face. Victoria looked around the rusted out old machine and found a sharp jagged piece of metal in the back dash of the car. She took the old piece of metal and brought it up to her temple. "Wait-" Randall started to say. Victoria slammed the metal into her head as hard she could, and it bent and snapped as soon as it's tip hit her metal skull. Randall shook his head and squirmed underneath of her, trying to get away from Victoria as politely as possible. His face was white and his breathing hastened.
"Are you going to throw up again?" Asked Victoria, as she scrunched up her mouth to the side. Randall pushed himself all the way to the opposite door of the car, away from Victoria and he sat up against the window, making a face of panic and pain as he did so. The two sat in the car in an uneasy silence for what seemed like minutes. Randall unsure of just what the hell was in front of him, and Victoria confused as to how Randall could laugh about a fork being stuck in his ribs one minute, and then how he could be upset with her the next. Victoria tossed the bent metal fragment to the side and then backed out of the car door, leaving Randall alone. "I'll bring back help." She said, her monotone voice trailing off just a little.
Victoria turned and left the corvega, heading towards the raider encampment. Her memory nagged at her as she walked the short distance to the junkyard, files upon files of her past life encroached upon her current directives and tasks, and she denied every application that would run them. She faced an uphill battle, and there was no time for remembering the past. The boy that every single one of those files would undoubtedly mention, was long dead, but the people in the box cars, and the man in the corvega still lived. This was their time now. She set her task manager to block all recollection on the matter and then entered into the junkyard.
Victoria scanned the area and marked the location of every raider. She stood back behind an old derelict bulldozer and watched as the raiders lined up by the back of the makeshift walls, constructed of car stacks. They were all eating the roasted remains of a human being, there were several more human bodies on spits nearby. The raiders were making merry, talking among themselves and laughing. Forty-six raiders in all were spread throughout the junkyard, far too many for her to attempt to engage. Victoria would be difficult to destroy, but nothing that was grown or manufactured was indestructible, especially where human ingenuity and violence were concerned. She was no match for them without a gun, and although she could overpower them physically in smaller groups, taking on nearly four dozen of them would not be a wise strategy.
She really only needed to gain access to her tablet device, to call in her waiting androids. It would really only take a few to dispatch the raiders, but ten androids would definitely get the job done. Still, as Victoria peaked around the bulldozer to the box cars full of frightened people, she worried about introducing them too soon, and in such a bloody fashion. Victoria looked like a nice enough young girl, yet Randall's reaction to her had been less than amiable. Her androids didn't have aesthetic value in mind within their design at all, and she calculated that the reaction of the wastelanders would be even worse than that of Randall's.
Yet there was precious little choice now. There was very little else to consider. Her attention snapped away from the junkyard and off into the distance. Her sensors picked up movement out in the wasteland, and she zoomed in on the three individuals that were sauntering towards the raider encampment. Three men in rather sturdy looking leather armor, each carrying assault rifles and pistols with them were making their way to the junkyard, and they had with them multiple devices that looked like large collars. These men were likely the purchasers of human slaves, the very same that Burner had been waiting for.
Victoria took off in their direction, making sure to stay out of sight from the raiders. She grabbed an old and sharp hub cap that was laying on top of a car hood as she went and then started running at full speed towards the men. Victoria raced at them at over forty miles per hour, with the hub cap in hand. Within just a minute of time, the three men had noticed her and all stopped. Dumbfounded by the speed of the child that was running up to them.
"What in the h-" Began one man. Victoria brought the hub cap back behind her shoulder and then released it in front of her with a snapping motion of her arm. The hub cap flew through the air like a high speed buzz saw, and it landed in the head of the first man. It stopped him mid-sentence, as his head was nearly split in two by the metal disc. It entered just above his mouth, and it ripped his skull backward. The top of his head hung by the flesh of his scalp and the muscle at the back of his head, dangling there horrifically as the body of the man flopped over sideways onto the ground.
Before the two other men could even react, Victoria was upon them. She jumped up to the closest of the two remaining men and grabbed him by his neck, bringing him down to the ground upon her knee. The man's neck hit her leg, and it broke with a loud snap. She dropped the limp body to the ground and turned to the last one standing. The man fumbled over his assault rifle and tripped on his own feet as he ran away from Victoria in a panic.
He raised his rifle up just as Victoria snatched it out of his hands. She checked the rifle, and then turned it on him.
"No! Wait! I-" Shouted the man. Victoria pulled the trigger on the gun and shot the man in his right eye. He fell back silent and bleeding out from his head. The rifle was acceptable, but not made in America. It left a sour taste in her mouth, seeing the Chinese made gun in her hands, but it would have to do. Victoria gathered the three other rifles from the bodies and all of the ammunition that they had on them. She had Eighty rounds in all, more than enough for the raiders. She sat down on the ground, surrounded by the three dead men and made sure that all the rifles had full magazines. She also leaned over to the mostly headless man and went through his pockets, looking for any identification. She couldn't find any, and so she stood up with a fully loaded rifle in each hand, and one additional one strapped to her back.
She went running again towards the junkyard, kicking up dust behind her as she raced along the wasteland. As she came to the makeshift walls, one singular raider came strolling out of the encampment, with his gun out- apparently to investigate the round that Victoria had just fired. The pink mohawked man looked to his right at first and then to his left where he saw her just in time to get his pistol raised up to his shoulder.
"What the fuck!?" Exclaimed the man, as he raised the pistol up. Victoria shot off a small burst of two rounds into the man's face, and he dropped backward into the dirt. She came running around the corner of the walls and began tracking the remaining forty-five targets. Still running at her top speed, she started firing into the crowd of surprised raiders. Two more rounds, then two more after that, and then three- all of which found their targets. Three more raiders had fallen before anyone could even get their guns up. Burner stood up from his cooking and pointed to Victoria.
"Well I'll be damned!" He said, as he stepped away from a human body roasting over a spit. Victoria recognized the body immediately, and she frowned. Burner grabbed his flamer and threw it over his shoulder. "Somebody forget to lock the goddamned door or what?!" He shouted at his raiders. Victoria continued her assault and took cover inside one of the stacks of cars.
She fired off her assault rifles into the crowd and dropped two more raiders, before they all opened fire on her. Victoria was small enough to fit in between the old burnt out cars. She hid inside the stacks, darting left and right before emerging again from a stack on the opposite wall. She plugged another raider in the back of her head, and the woman fell forward, with her brain matter spilling out over a disgusted small cluster of other raiders. They didn't hesitate to fire on her position, and Burner set the stack ablaze with his flamer. Victoria retreated to the outside and quickly climbed up the outside of the wall, taking a few rounds to her chest and legs as she went up.
She reached the top and surveyed the damage to her body. Her endoskeleton was mostly unaffected by the shots, but her left leg had lost just a small amount of hydraulic pressure. The raiders concentrated their fire upwards to the car stack that she was on, and some began to climb up the opposite walls to get a better vantage point on her. She rolled down to the hood of the top most car of the stack and into the broken out window of it. Then she went to the window and fired back down to the raiders below. Her shots landed on one more raider and he fell to the ground. She blasted one more down from his climb on the opposite wall, killing him with the fall, before Burner shot his flames into the car. Victoria smashed through the other side of the car, with her right arm and dress on fire.
She put out the flames as quickly as she could and then shot at the rivets on the top most car of the stack, releasing it from it's binding with the other old automobiles. Then with all of her might, she pushed on the hollowed out old car, moving it off of the stack. The car tumbled over and landed on one of the raiders that had taken to climbing the stack that she was on. He landed with the car on top of him, his head turned to a jelly.
"Holy fuck!" Yelled one of the men as all of the raiders started firing up at the old cars in all directions. They spread out and more of them began to climb the stacks. One of the unfortunate men looked into one of the cars that he was climbing up, just in time to see the large broken windshield in Victoria's hand come up to his face. The top of his head separated from the man's lower jaw, and his spurting corpse fell backward onto the ground far below.
Victoria fired her last rounds from one of her rifles down at the raiders, as the raiders concentrated their fire on the car that the mostly headless raider had fallen from. The other gun had jammed from poor condition, and Victoria dropped them both to the car floor. She brought her last assault rifle around made sure it was secure before she exited out of the front window.
One of the raiders on top of the stacks went running over towards the car, and aimed his gun downward off of the side of the wall. He spotted Victoria climbing between the cars on all fours, her back towards him and her limbs bent and animated at unnatural angles. He screamed at the disturbing sight, and then completely lost his nerve when she turned her head around to face him, her neck twisted and contorted in a way that he just couldn't deal with, and he ran.
The raider with the spikey hairdo went sprinting across the stacks, dropping his gun to the ground far away from him and pushing past his fellow gunmen, the raider didn't stop until he hit a ladder leading down. He missed a few rungs and hurt himself in the descent, but seemed determined to get away from stacks. The other raiders shouted at him.
"Doug! What the shit are you doing?!" Asked one of the raiders. The gunfire had quieted down, as the raiders searched for the young girl. Doug didn't answer, he hopped off of the ladder and went running into the safety of the wasteland, somewhere towards the north. The two raiders stood side by side and watched their former cohort disappear behind some rocks. "What a goddamned coward!" Said the raider, as he scowled.
Then there came the sound of metal being punched through, and the raider felt his ankles being clenched by two very powerful hands. He screamed out as he was pulled downward at incredible speed, his trigger finger squeezed out his remaining ammo right into his friend's head as the searing pain shot through his legs all the way up into his stomach. The raider beside him dropped to the hood of the old car on which they had been standing, and slid off onto the ground far beneath them. The raider tried to scream but was cut off, literally, when his legs were pulled backward into the sharp metal edges of the car's roof. His torso tumbled forward off of the car, and he wildly grabbed out to the air, trying to catch himself, but the raider fell to the ground with a wet splatting noise.
The violence and carnage was too much for another one of the raiders, and she too went fleeing away from the stacks of cars, only to have one well placed round hit her squarely in between her shoulders. The woman fell forward and began to kick herself forward with as much leg strength as she had left, but to little avail. Victoria watched the raider try to crawl away and then returned her attention to the 31 remaining targets. More flames went sailing into the car stacks all around her, and more raiders were taking aim at her general location. A good number of them had taken cover behind the burnt out cars of the old world, and Burner himself hid behind the makeshift stage that they had made for the sell and purchase of human beings.
The gunshots soon tapered off and she could hear yelling and shouting down below in the junkyard. The sound of a metal door being opened caught her attention, and Victoria peered over the rusted out door of the junked out car that she was in. Burner shoved a football armored man down in front of him and put his flame thrower to the back of the man's head.
"You Enclave bitches are crazy!" Yelled out Burner, in an almost admiring tone. He clicked his flame thrower on and the armored man began screaming. "I tell you what! You throw that gun out, and I won't burn the next one!" Said Burner, just as he pulled his trigger and set the man in front of him ablaze. The man didn't even have time to scream, as his upper half completely turned to ashes and bones. Another raider threw a young child out to Burner from the old rail box car, and Burner caught him under his jaw.
"Okay." Said Victoria, loudly enough so that all of the raiders could hear her. She tossed the gun out of the window without a moment's hesitation and quickly climbed out of the car and onto the top of it's roof. Burner looked up at her and then ruffled the hair of the young boy that he held captive.
"I can't believe you were actually that stupid!" He yelled up to Victoria, as a raider went running into the open to fetch the discarded weapon. The raider inspected the gun and then went running to Burner.
"Shit! It's the slaver's guns!" He said to Burner, as he showed the gun to him. Burner scoffed out and looked back up at Victoria. He squinted from the midday sun and took in her figure as much as he could. There was more to her than met the eyes, and Burner began to wonder over how the child that was not even older than the boy in his arm stood so defiantly and calmly on the stacks above him.
"Who the hell are you?!" Shouted Burner, as he threw the boy down to the ground in front of him. The raider trained the slaver's rifle on the boy, who just balled up into a fetal position with his hands over his head. Victoria slowly began to walk across the stacks of cars, closer towards Burner. The remaining raiders all came out of hiding and cover to raise their various firearms up at her as she went. The loud clanking of the footsteps on the car tops was eerie and rhtyhmic. She stopped and finally answered the man.
"I am Victoria." She said plainly. Then she pointed down to Burner. "Burner. For your crimes against humanity and for the conspiracy to buy and sell human beings, I am sentencing you to the maximum extents of the law." She yelled down to them all. The raiders erupted into laughter. Burner put his foot on the boy's head, as if it were just a rock to rest his foot on.
"What law is that?" He yelled back up to her. Victoria continued walking across the stacks.
"The law that all citizens of the United States will now adhere to." She said back down to them all. "Surrender to me now, and I can guarantee you and all of your cohorts a speedy and fair sentencing." The people in the box cars began to peek out at the raiders and the showdown that was taking place above them. Burner laughed out and turned his flame thrower on again.
"Goddamned crazy clavies." He said to himself as he raised the flame thrower up towards Victoria. "Alright! It was nice meeting you, Victor!" Yelled out Burner as he pulled the trigger on his gun. The flames erupted forth from the nozzle of his flame thrower and went soaring up to Victoria. The boy screamed out and squirmed underneath of Burner's well worn boot. The raiders too opened up fire on the stack of cars, towards the little figure that had been standing on the top. The shots finally stopped and Burner gave his flames a rest. The burnt up leg of the girl on the top of the stacks hung off a car hood, and Burner motioned for one of his raiders to go fetch the fallen nuisance.
"I'll get her!" Said the female raider, the same one that had taken Victoria's backpack some time earlier in the day. She climbed up the stacks of cars and whooped out with joy when she reached the top. "Charcoal!" She shouted back down to the raiders in the junk yard. A cheer went through the ghastly crowd and they fired off a few more rounds into the air.
"Looks like there's desert after all!" Yelled out Burner, as he motioned with his hands to the raider on top of the stack. She nodded and rolled the darkened body of the girl off of the hood and watched with delight as she hit the ground below with a satisfying thud. Burner let the boy underneath of his boot up, and then immediately threw him down to the body of the little girl in question. The boy panicked and skittered away from the inhuman burned out thing in front of him, to the laughs of the raiders. "That's one hot tamale, huh?" Asked Burner to the boy, as he kicked the boy back towards the box car.
"Smells weird." Said one of the raiders, as he grabbed an ankle and began to drag the little body towards the stage. Burner sniffed the air and shrugged. The unusual scent was foreign to him, for a moment, and then the memory of an incident hit him. Plastic. The same smell had once hung around the air after Burner had put down a Mr. Handy. He snapped his attention back to the burnt body of Victoria just as the raider went to rip off the remaining bits of clothing that had not been incinerated. "Man Burner, I don't think she's any good..." Said the raider.
"Wait!" Shouted Burner, as he turned his flame thrower on again. The eyes of the young girl opened up and her hand went up to the neck of the raider that leaned over her. A sickening albeit short scream left the raider's mouth as the mechanical thing ripped out the man's throat. It sat up and looked at Burner, with one eye still looking quite human, and the other... the other was nothing short of nightmarish. The red light shone directly into Burner's eyes and he fumbled with the flame thrower, stepping away from the thing as it let go of the dead raider from it's grip. Shots rang out as the remaining 29 other raiders fired upon Victoria's reanimated corpse. It quickly rolled away from the gunfire and went sliding across the stage to the weird tablet that Burner had discarded earlier. The android pressed a series of buttons on the tablet and then stood up to look at it's attackers head on. Now the truth of the situation was revealed.
"I didn't want to cause you any undue pain or discomfort." Said the android in the middle of the stage. "I'm sorry that this had to happen." She said.
Victoria stood upon the stage, with her burnt flesh falling away in some places, and in those places her shining and metallic endoskeleton could be seen. Some of the raiders stopped firing, either in awe or in mass confusion. Her face had melted slightly at her mouth and her right side, and in a freakish display, Victoria gripped her face and pulled the charred flesh off of her jaws and right side of her face. The metallic skull beneath the flesh was solid, shining and cold.
The raiders stood in silence and contemplation for what seemed like minutes. An eerie wind howled through the stacks of the burnt out cars of the junkyard, and Victoria turned her attention again to Burner. Screams erupted from the box cars and from the raiders alike, some of the raiders dropped their weapons and they began to run away from the junkyard. The first of the raiders reached the entrance to the makeshift entrance and screamed out again. His fellow raiders followed close behind him, and they too stopped and shouted out in fear and panic.
Four white, horrible looking monstrosities stood at the entrance, all of them with horrid looking metal tentacles and sharp scorpion like legs. The first raider turned back around just as one of the white mechanical beasts blasted him with a beam from one of it's many red lights that surrounded it's 'body'. The raider evaporated into a thin matrix of white and red smoke. The death was clean, and environmentally sound.
"Hello.~ Please line up in an orderly fashion for sentencing." Came a rather pleasent sounding voice from one of the scorpion like monsters. The raiders all began to scream and run away, but to no avail. The four creatures blasted the other eight retreating targets with extreme efficiency. Burner and the remaining 21 raiders all began to fire at the four mechanical beasts, but they all quickly turned their attention to the tops of the stacks. Six more of the fiends had climbed the stacks around them, and withing seconds the 21 other raiders were gone. The junkyard went silent until the ten white mechanical beasts announced their success in unison. "Sentencing complete!~" Their tone was jolly, like that of an old english butler. They all next moved onto the box cars that held the human captives and began to release the locks.
Victoria made her way down the stage and towards Burner, who shrank away from her. She turned to one of the strange androids next to her and pointed in the direction of Randall's position. The wordless exchange took place, and the android went rushing off to it's apportioned task. Burner stepped back from Victoria as dozens of screaming wastelanders went running past them both. He fell backward and scrambled away from her all the way to wall of one of the box cars. She bent down to him and then looked to her left, placing a finger on right cheek. Burner shook violently and shut his eyes tight.
"Look at what you did to me." Demanded Victoria, with her unmoved and monotone voice. The voice resonated strangely, metallic and distant, but still hers. Burner slowly opened up his eyes and watched in surprise and slight horror as strange green and red strips of lights ran across her face. Thin piece by thin piece, her face was returning to her metallic skull. The burnt flesh around her neck also began to change back to normal. Victoria faced him again and then slowly waved her finger in front of Burner's face, as if he were a child to be scolded. "You will not stop me." She said finally, as she picked him up the waist.
"Gah!-" Burner gasped out, as the little android lifted him straight into the air. He hung over her with a look of helpless fear in his eyes, and didn't dare struggle as she began to walk him over to the stage. She gently placed him down and then held her hand out to her side. One of the white androids placed Burner's discarded flame thrower in her hand. She turned the flame thrower on and pointed it at Burner's legs. He began screaming and the white android shot it's tentacles out towards him, restraining him to the spot.
"Burner. It is the supreme law of the land that the punishment shall fit the crime. You will choose a limb, I will cook it, and then you will eat it." Said Victoria, as he struggled and began to cry out. "Choose." She reiterated to him. Burner shook his head violently and then tried to wriggle free.
"NO!" He yelled out. Victoria turned the flamer to Burner's right leg and began to slowly roast it. The screams of Burner filled the junkyard, and the remaining captives fled quickly from the stacks. The screaming went on for some minutes, until finally Victoria let up on the flames, and another android finished the job. It surgically removed and then brought the leg up to Burner's mouth, while forcing his mouth open with it's tentacles. Victoria left the stage, listening to the muffled screams and sudden forced chewing of the raider as she went. The box cars were emptied of the terrified people now, there were no stragglers. She went up to one of her androids and patted it's chassis.
"Strip the nervous system, retain the brain. Full access." Said Victoria to the android. It made a beeping noise and left for the screaming raider. She continued on her way to the corvega that she had left Randall in, where he was shouting and yelling at one of her androids. It worked around his kicks and disruptive wriggling, wrapping his legs up in an oddly colored foil. "Calm down." Said Victoria, as she climbed into the burnt out corvega.
"What the hell!" Yelled Randall. He pointed to the white android as it pulled away from him and stepped away. "What the hell!" He shouted again. Victoria spun around to face him from the front seat of the car, just as it was lifted into the air by the android's tentacles.
"Calm down. These are my friends from Cedar Rapids." Said Victoria in a matter of fact sort of way. Randall stared at her with wide eyes, and Victoria faced the rearview mirror to take a look at herself. Her shiny endoskeleton peeked through her face, and a great deal of her was still charred. Her right eye still shone a brilliant red light. "I ran into trouble." She stated, as the car lurched forward.
"No shit." Said Randall, as he gripped the seat of the now moving vehicle.
Somewhere on a ridge, far north of the now quiet junkyard, Malloy lowered his binoculars and breathed out. In the distance, he could see the android carrying the old car off into the distance towards Nicksta, and he watched as the final surviving raider crawled away, in pain and bleeding from the wound in her back. One of the androids, the DEET, casually walked over to her and evaporated her as it walked past. He scurried off of the ridge and started making his way away from the scene. Anywhere would be better than that newly abandoned place now.
